Five 2013 Games Ruined by Multiplayer

David Jagneaux of TheKoalition.com writes: First of all: we know these games are not out yet and we have not played them. We cannot say with certainty that the multiplayer aspects will “ruin” them, but our informed opinions and personal insight into the industry seem to paint a rather grim image. Hopefully we are wrong, but if not: we told you so.

Multiplayer sure is a hot-button issue these days. Sure, you could argue that a lot of developers have separate teams working on each mode, or that “more content is good content” – but at what cost? While it may on its face seem like developers are deciding to give gamers more bang for their buck, you have to wonder what are the sacrifices they made in that process? The list you find below isn’t designed to say any of these games will be bad games, necessarily, but it is designed to say that these games are looking to be negatively affected because of the decision to include multiplayer.

Exactly. I was one of the people that said God of War with Multiplayer? Come on, really?- Level 19 on a single day of the beta.. It's that good. Now the real disappointment is in Dead Space 3.. I swear I'll never forget EA if they ruin my favorite horror franchise just to add a f*cking co-op.

Yeah...I don't know what to make of this. I know it's possible to look at a game and tell whether it's your type of game or not but this....is a step too many over the line. I can't even read the rest of it...

The article is kind of pointless, granted, but they are going by what they have seen. It is more of a filler article, as nothing is happening lately....... *crickets

I know in the article they mentioned their reasons, but I still had to laugh when I first saw the mention of The Elder Scrolls Online. Like saying Planetside 2 was ruined by MP lol.

The list is more speculation to start a discussion, that is at least what I interpreted it (try saying those 2 words together 5 times lol) as, and should be treated as such. I myself am probably only going to get GOW:A from that list, and I'm happy as long as the single-player can fill my hack 'n slash needs.

this site just want to downplay god of war ascension before it even come out and they even lied about playing it in this article but the users cought them http://thekoalition.com/201...

" The mode we played was a 3 vs. 3 arena brawler where players fought to take control of the map and brutally annihilate a large titan who looms in the background. Unlike Gary, I actually enjoyed my time spent with Ascensions multiplayer however I still feel conflicted about its longterm viability."

those guys didn't even play the game because if they did they would know it's 4 vs. 4 not 3 vs. 3 this no name site is just looking for hits

You can't say shit about a game's multiplayer until you've actually experienced it yourself. Coop to me for Dead Space was something long overdue. They should've replaced Dead Space 2's multi with coop. Nothing can be said about Elder Scrolls because practically nothing has been shown yet.

I hate sites that feel that HAVE to slag off the multiplayer in God of War: Ascension just because they assume that gamers don't want to like it and that it's just to make more money. God of War was always huge before multiplayer so more money isn't the motive, we're paying the same price as usual for a God of War game but thanks to the new multiplayer component we have something to possibly sink 100's of hours into and finally be able to play with friends and socialise with the huge & incredible God of War fanbase.

I rarely see anyone dislike the beta, the overwhelming majority love the beta and if you consider the fact that it is just a beta and that the final game will be more balanced, polished and content packed then it's going to be an amazing addition to the God of War series.

Also, just to inform the uninformed, Sony Santa Monica had around 80 developers who made God of War III, after that was a HUGE success they grew massively to around 200 people. They split the team in half and have 100 people working on a new IP directed by Stig Asmussen for the PS4 and then have 80 working on the single player which ensures the campaign will be just as amazing as ever and have 20 developers dedicated to making the multiplayer awesome. The multiplayer will NOT ruin the single player AT ALL.

Won't even bother to read... you titke the article like its fact (for site hits) and proceed to tell us you dont really know but your 'informed' opinions should be enough apparently. And what kind of credentials do you really have beyond "we play games"?

I understand Tomb Raider and Dragon Age. But GoW: Ascension's mp is great. And Elder Scrolls Online just makes sense really, it has a lot of potential. Not every game needs multiplayer, a lot don't, but for some games it just makes so much sense.

Kinda hard to say they are ruined when you haven't even played them yet, when they showed just sp of these games people weren't any less excited, it looked great, up to par if not better than what we were expecting. so how about you wait till you play the full game to make that jusgement

You can't judge a game if you have not already played through all of it. So don't go calling out games and saying they've already been ruined by multiplayer. You can say that you think they'll be terrible, but people thought Uncharted 2 was gonna have terrible multiplayer but I will defend that online portion forever. I loved it.

''Yes, I know: the game has to have multiplayer because it is an MMO. Clearly, I know this. However, I want to talk about what transferring the Elder Scrolls world into a multiplayer setting will do to the series as a whole (hint: I think it ruins it.) People have been asking Bethesda to include coop in a main-series Elder Scrolls game for years, for good reason. You can already have companions and it would be fun to adventure throughout Tamriel with a real-life friend. However, an MMO is far different than “including coop” in a game. This is changing the underlying notions of the game itself.

First of all, Elder Scrolls games are so great because they let you do whatever you want. Typically, this includes “breaking the game” and/or making an extremely powerful character. While the MMO will allow for similar character development, it just will not be the same. Making an MMO (which includes both coop and competitive play) necessarily requires that they balance the game, which takes away a lot of the fun. Second, the entire atmosphere and tone of the game will be entirely different. Instead of exploring a world and getting lost in the environments and quest lines, you’ll have to deal with several smaller “fetch” style quests that are a staple of the genre and watching players bunny-hop across the countryside. Finally, it’s not even being developed by Bethesda Game Studios, it’s being developed by Zenimax Online Studios (both of which are owned by Bethesda Softworks.) Sure, they probably have help from BGS, but I highly doubt it will be the same.

The Elder Scrolls is easily in my top 3 or so game franchises of all-time, but I fear that this drastic shift in focus will ruin the experience. Maybe I am wrong, but I feel like it’s turning into “just another MMO” that happens to carry the Elder Scrolls name. This is in stark contrast to an Elder Scrolls game that is also an MMO. Those are two vastly different products.''

Clearly he/she has not seen the videos about the game or have little to no information at all about it other than the 'MMO' as a genre for the game.